Showing posts with label Mongoose Traveller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mongoose Traveller. Show all posts

Friday, October 9, 2020

Daydreaming of TL9 - a game that Spans 2050 to 2200.

  Traveller Games in TL9



2050-2099 

ike Delta-V where freelance Astronauts of various specializations are getting hired and trained for pioneer missions to catch asteroids, comets, and material to bring some of it or all of it back to CisLunar Space. The race to reduce the cost per kg to Cislunar space is the Race to have as much Sensors and navigation equipment to better find Opportunities and Catch material.

  1. Harder Science drawing from Artemis, The Martian, Delta V, Seveneves, and the growing Space Science Literacy like sources from Atomic Rockets. 
  2. An understanding of how we transition from our Current Situation to TL9 - development of Space Infra and all the science and economic changes when we don't fight over Earth resources in Climate Change but try to catch Asteroids and Comets. 
  3. Ice Ships and Sky hooks. Tons of Delta-V conserved with very clever tricks that have become standard operations. 
  4. Your not held hostage by accuracy and precision - get the Science you can handle and run with it. Be kind to GMs and Players who are trying to develop their hard science TRPG legs so that there are MORE of them and they can learn from each other. 

2100-2149 

the Normalization of Material Capture and the Growth of the CisLunar. CisLunar Space and Earths population pushing outward. The Push for Jupiter and Psyche 16. Jupiter with its moons, rings, and low Delta-V cost resources would become its own HUB and development. Experimental Micro Jump Drives discover the Vilani Outposts. Imagine the logistical fleets that were set up to allow megatons of material to Micro Jump all the way to Vilani Outposts

  1. The "mining" that is seen as low-brow in Traveller Golden era is now the Pursuits of Nations and megacorporation as it tries to push the boundaries of Human reach. 
  2. The months-long Travel from Earth to Venus or Earth to the Belt and Jupiter. The jobs are mostly logistics: moving material in these Low-Delta-V places to Processing and Trade. Space is BIG and players soon discover the scale - if they didn't already discover it in CisLunar Space. 

2150-2200 

Commercial Micro Jump Drives. From Jumping from CisLunar Space to Jupiter and then Jupiter to Saturn. Torch Drive Efficiency still has not reached levels dreamed of in the Expanse, but have become much safer. Ion Drive Efficiencies have become very viable to start having hardened Habitat enclosures. 

The later century is marked with the events in Interstellar Wars and the Vilani. Sol micro jump capable fleets against Vilani Jump Fleet with vastly greater Torch and Ion Drive efficiencies. The Crushing Defeat has so many facets and angles.

Demographics have changed drastically as humans live to 200 with major strides in Cybernetics and prosthetics. What makes human survive in space is the same science that makes him live 200 years. The economics of population that can work or a hundred years and the number of families they can sire is quite remarkable.


  1. Electronic warfare - with a level of power only needed to harm sensors and comms. 
  2. Torpedos with Bomb pumped lasers (nuclear warheads that blow up directionally in very narrow cone to make it devastate a hundred of kilometers before it diffuses. 
  3. Repeaters that direct and Obfuscate Drones and weapon Platforms. Diffuse hulled ships carrying megatons of drone weapon platforms carrying torpedos to wage war in ranges of Light mili-seconds. 
  4. The Alien worlds they visit after all that work to get Just one System Away. 
  5. Using the Nearby Space and rolling Procedurally what the Player Encounter!!! Even the GM is surprised lolz.  


Saturday, September 12, 2020

TL9 Exo Skeletons and Spare Part Grades

 So from my background in Construction and manufacturing, as a Safety Officer, and Quality Management officer, as well as inspiration from Seveneves and Delta V I've come to the conclusion that the best incentive for Exo-skeletons to Augment Physical labor is from the demands of making every human as productive as possible in the Early Years of Space Infra development. 

The Skyhooks, the Space Stations, the Shipyards, the Artificial Habitats will all depend more on the Humans who are more resilient to radiation and able to take initiative when disconnected from a master control system. Like the author of Delta-V Daniel Suarez I agree that living in Cis-Lunar Space is its own Industrial Revolution with very Strange and counter Intuitive elements. There are odds that we may not develop good robots in time and that the faction who will Pioneer Space is those who can keep a healthy, thriving, and competent work force there. 

Exo Skeletons begin with basic Assist uses, but then begin to Extend to more enhancements until EMU's begin to look like Yellow Gorillas dancing in the shipyard magically putting together vessels and habitats.  





GSHEET Link 

TECH LEVELTL 9TL 9TL 9TL 9
YEAR (AD)2200220022002200
ITEM NAMECrew Vacc SuitExtraVehicular Mobility UnitAssist ExoskeletonHeavy Exoskeleton
DESCRIPTIONThis is the standard Basic Vacc Suit Worn inside a Ship, Vessel, or Station in case of a breach and emergency.This is the standard Work Suit for heavy labor conducted in space. Ships, Stations, and any Space Infrastructure is expected to have many of these for any maintenance, emergency or construction task. The exo skeleton built into this suit allows it to generate 1200 Watts of work for it battery life for 100Watts of effort.The resistance of the Crew Vacc Suit reduces the work output of a 300 watt human to 200 watts. This subsidizes or assists the humans so they can perform the full 300 watt output for the battery life of the exo-skeleton.This allows the users to generate full 1000 Watts of work with 100 Watts of effort.
DERIVED FROMAdvanced Crew Escape SuitExtravehicular Mobility Unit
MANUFACTUREOpen Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+3 Spare Parts.Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+4 Spare Parts. Spare parts are 60metric tons per 1dton (4metric tons per 1 cubic meter).
Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+3 Spare Parts.Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+3 Spare Parts.
FUNCTIONIntra-vehicular activity (IVA) as secondary protection incase of Life support failure, limited EVA 1 day. This is used to Work Inside the Non-Rotating/Non-Gravity section of the ship (Which is 80-90% of the ship). Crew is expected to wear this the whole time they are outside Grav Habitat. (While in the Artificial Gravity, they wear a TL9 Body-Fit Vacc Suit 2200 model (5-10kg including its helmet; only meant to minimize Pressure Sickness, and survive an hour at most in Pure vacuum - as its pressure management systems fail) in case of Habitat Hull breach or destruction.Work in Vaccum for Long Periods, even in extreme periods of work where the worker is in the suit for 40-80 hours. The life support section allows the wearer to curl up in Zero Grav and self-comfort. It's been designed to allow for herculean tasks and these tasks tend to be called for. Provides 1200 Watts of Work (for the duration of the Battery) at a level of effort fo 100 Watts (+1100 Watts Asssitance).Assist in Movement in Pressurized Crew VaccSuit. Adds 200 Watts of assistive Work Strength.Assist in Movement in Pressurized Crew VaccSuit. Adds 800 Watts of assistive Work Strength.
Life SupportExpected to be from the Vehicle. Backup Life Support: 10 hours (trained Spacers can reduce their life support demands to a day; this 10 hours is meant for heavy exertion). But Safety standards and protocol considers ExtraVehicular Work in this suit as Emergency Work and sets a safety limit of 4 hours.40 man-hours of heavy exertion 80 man-hours for light. Can be serviced and supplied in a Vacuum.NANA
Powered Life20 hours.40 hours with powered movement. Unlimited with a power tether20 hours10 hours
Work Output (WATTS)-100 Watts of Work. (loss from the resistance of the pressurized suit)+1100 Watts of Work (so 100 Watts of Effort equals 1200 Watts), -400 Watts unpowered.+200 Watts of Work. -50 Watts unpowered.+800 Watts of Work.-200 Watts Unpowered.
PRESURENear FullFullNANA
Operating Pressure:0.8 Atmosphere, 81.06kPA, 11.7 psi (see Altitude sickness and decompression sickness)101 kPa (14.69 psi) or 1 Atmosphere of pressure.NANA
Work in 1Gconsidered under a load of 40kg (10kg of work to move, and 30kg for the weight of it) working in a pressurized suit in 1G.considered under a load of 12kg Powered and 90kg Unpowered working in a pressurized suit in 1G. (combination of resistance of the limbs, its mass, even if it can struturally stand on its own).
Maintenance7 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing40 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing.40 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing.40 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing.
Work-Life5 years or 60 months of use and replacement parts is as though you bought a whole new Suit. 3.5KCr / 60 months = 60Cr per month of maintenance. Not counting the Life support Consumables at 2Cr per Man Day.10 years or 120 months of use and replacement parts is as though you bought a whole new Suit. 16KCr / 120 months = 135Cr per month of maintenance. Not counting the Life support Consumables at 2Cr per Man Day.
TOTAL WEIGHT30.0 kg60.0 kg10.0 kg30.0 kg
TOTAL COST$3,500$16,000$1,500$4,500
Life Support Weight20.0 kg20.0 kg
Life Support Cost$3,000.00$10,000.00
Life Support PartsGrade+3 (150Cr per Kg)Grade+4 (500Cr per Kg)
Wearer Weight60-100 kg60-120 kg60-100 kg60-100 kg
Suit without Lifesupport10.0 kg40.0 kg10.0 kg30.0 kg
Suit without Life Suppor Cost$500.00$6,000.00$1,500.00$4,500.00
Suit PartsGrade+2 (50Cr per KG)Grade+3 (150Cr per Kg)Grade+3 (150Cr per Kg)Grade+3 (150Cr per Kg)
NotesExtra Suits are expected for Redundancy and Spare. Vacc Tape is used to patch it up.Special Use: Exercise Rig - for long extended periods of time, the suit can be programmed to allow for exercise by giving resistance to various motions.Special Use: Exercise Rig - for long extended periods of time, the suit can be programmed to allow for exercise by giving resistance to various motions.Reduced Life Support Space. The life support has to be stripped down to allow for the Drives and power Pack. Life Support is reduced to 3 hours.
Special Use: Exercise Rig - for long extended periods of time, the suit can be programmed to allow for exercise by giving resistance to various motions.
BLOGTL9 Basic Crew Vacc Suit 2200TL9 EMU Suit and its PSD File and Stats
PSD200904_TL9_crew_vacc_suit_2200_.psd200903_ExtraVehicular_Mobility_Unit_TL9_2200.psd200912_TL9_crew_vacc_suit_with_assist_exo_2200.psd200912_TL9_crew_vacc_suit_with_heavy_exo_2200.psd

How Parts Work

I stopped using the word "Quality" because in Quality Management and Engineering it means something else. As wel get more Technical, its better to use the Term GRADE (from PMBOK)
Simplifying everything to Type or Category, Their Mass and Volume (in Bulk) and Their Cost. I used a simple exponent of 3. 3x more and 1/3 less per level. 

Types could be: Life Support, Machinery, Drives, Computing, Etc... 
Grades Increase the Cost per Kg of a Certain Type of parts. 

Assuming 
100KCr per 14 cubic meters. 14 cubic meters at 2.7tons = 37.8 tons of aluminum in 14 cubic meters. Lets Half that 
Aluminum is 2.7metric tons per 1 cubic meter. Lets put Spare Parts mixed it with packaging, ceramics (which have a lower density), and polymers. 
Lets put Spare Parts at roughly 20 metric tons in 14 cubic meters. 
So lets set a price per KG. Grade+0 is at 5Cr. 20,000KG = 100,000Cr. 
So Spare parts or Commodity parts at Grade+0 = 5Cr per 1KG. 100KCr for 20 metric tons (14 cubic meters). 
  1. Grade+0 Spare parts are 5Cr per Kg of spare parts for Grade+0. 100KCr per 1dTon 20 metric tons of mass.  
  2. Grade+1 Spare parts 15Cr per Kg. or 300KCr per dton/14cu.m.
  3. Grade+2 Spare parts  50Cr per Kg. or 1MCr per dton/14cu.m.
  4. Grade+3 Spare parts for the Life Support and Tech at 150Cr per Kg. or 3MCr per dton/14cu.m.
  5. Grade+4 Spare Parts for Life support and Tech at 500Cr per Kg. or 10MCr per dton/14cu.m.
  6. Grade+5 Spare Parts at 1.5KCr per Kg. (x20,000 to get the per dton/14cu.m)
  7. Grade+6 Spare Parts at 5KCr per Kg. (x20,000 to get the per dton/14cu.m)
The GM can make inferences and expert judgment of what a Grade of parts can do. Take any of the "Trade" details you see in Traveller (GURPS, Mongoose, Classic, Mega) and apply the rational of Grades and you can have some more variance. 
Grade of parts 
Grade of Workshops/Workstations.  


Saturday, September 5, 2020

TL9 EMU Suit and its PSD File and Stats


both EMU unit and Crew Suit PSD file. 


TL9 Crew Suit 2200 PSD FILE

  1. Changed the Shadows Layer into an OVERLAY layer. I used the Overlay property on the layer to create the shadow effect that applies to both the BASE COLOR and the STRIPES. you can now change the BASE COLOR without having to recolor the shadows. 
  2. Changed the Highlights Layer into a SOFT LIGHT. Same as the OVERLAY layer, it allows anyone with the PSD to change the BASE COLOR without having to redo the highlights and shadows. 

TL9 EMU SUIT 2200 PSD FILE

  1. This is where I experimented with OVERLAY and SOFTLIGHT and got the workflow you see in the PSD file. 
  2. This is where I got the right level of line size.
  3. This is where I relearned a lot of coloring and basics. 
  • Name: Basic ExtraVehicular Mobility Unit TL9 2200 Model.
    • To differentiate it with the Basic EVA Suit TL9 2200 Model. 
  • Derived from: Extravehicular Mobility Unit
  • Manufacturer: Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade+2 Spare Parts. Spare parts are 60metric tons per 1dton (4metric tons per 1 cubic meter). 
    • Assuming Grade+0 Spare parts are 100KCr per 1dTon 20 metric tons of mass (half the density of aluminum).  5Cr per Kg of spare parts for Grade+0. 
    • Assuming Grade are x3 more expensive every level in quality and value (x3, x10, x30, x100 etc...). 
    • Grade+2 Spare parts for the suit is 50Cr per Kg. or 1MCr per dTon. 
    • Grade+3 Spare parts for the Life Support and Tech at 150Cr per Kg. or 3MCr per dTon
    • Grade+4 Spare Parts for Life support and Tech at 500Cr per Kg. or 10MCr per dTon. 
  • Function: Work in Vaccum for Long Periods, even in extreme periods of work where the worker is in the suit for 40-80 hours. The life support section allows the wearer to curl up in Zero Grav and self-comfort. It's been designed to allow for herculean tasks and these tasks tend to be called for. 
    • Life Support:  40 man-hours of heavy exertion 80 man-hours for light. Can be serviced and supplied in a Vacuum. 
      • Powered Life is 40 hours with powered movement. Unlimited with a power tether. 
      • Work. if a human can produce 300-400wats, the suit can produce around 1000-1200 watts of work for its 40 hours of independent power supply. 
    • Pressure Type: Full
    • Operating Pressure: 101 kPa (14.69 psi) or 1 Atmosphere of pressure. 
    • Work In Zero G. Pressurized Work in this suit is considered light load thanks to the exoskeleton dealing with most of the suits own resistance and mass. 
      • Common add ons Thruster and Cabling Attachments.
      • As well as special Welding Rigs that deal with the large about of heat the process generates.  
    • Work In 1G. considered under a load of 12kg Powered and 90kg Unpowered working in a pressurized suit in 1G. 
    • Special Use: Exercise Rig - for long extended periods of time, the suit can be programmed to allow for exercise by giving resistance to various motions. 
  • Operating Life: 
    • Maintenance: 40 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing. 
    • Work-Life:  10 years or 120 months of use and replacement parts is as though you bought a whole new Suit. 16KCr / 120 months = 135Cr per month of maintenance. Not counting the Life support Consumables at 2Cr per Man Day.
  • Suit Weight: 40 kg; 6KCr (150Cr per Kg; Grade+2 Parts)
    • Life Support Systems weight: 20kg,  10KCr (Grade+3 Parts; 500Cr per KG)
    • Total Weight: 60kg at 16KCr (12KG load when Powered in 1G; in Micro or No gravity the suit is aided by the exoskeleton)
    • Typical Weight: Carries 40kg to 60kg of supplies. from rations, wipes, 

What can you do with the PSD file:

  1. Change the Color. my son messing around with the colors. Select the base color layer and use HUE, BRIGHTNESS, and SATURATION to manipulate the color. 


  2. Redo. I plan to draw Exo Skeleton Attachment. Thrusters and other Variants. A combat version though will be very far in the horizon. 

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Photoshop FIle of the TL9 Crew Vacc Suit.

Photoshop file (gimp compatible) for TL9 Crew Vacc Suit

Traced with a lot of liberties from Albin Merle's 3d Rendering of the Advanced Crew Escape Suit (which should give you adequate inspiration)

I realized Vacc Suits need to be High contrast as a safety precaution.



Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

as I examine the EMU for my next work, I realize a lot of things as I tinker and trace over the EMU. 

1) no gravity (EVA usage) means legs and but serve to direct some 

2) legs are for stability in low g or when you need to magnetic walk to conserve on delta-v propulsion (walk instead of waste gas). 

3)  the backside can be a much larger area for (as some EVA suits are designed) both for entrance and life support. There is no "sitting" in this suit and expandable fabric space can be placed in the "trunk". 

Basically, the Spacer can pull out their legs from the pants and self-comfort and first aid. Cleaning up after "relief" is easier.  

It is pretty much a Vehicle than suit. 

4) the exoskeleton aids movement in a small pressurized vehicle of the EMU. At first the exo-skeleton will assist in comfort as you move the articulated parts of the suit. Its not like moving around 5-10kg strapped on your arms (the extra mass being a workout but also making fine manual work difficult) 

As the exoskeleton gets more sophisticated and advanced workers can now join, close, seal, etc... more and more with the strength of the suit. Again the right tools mean less force and accidents. When you overexert strength you sacrifice control, but when a machine is doing the heavy lift you focus on telling it to stop. 

as you expend more effort you focus on having more leverage and muscles for the job instead of having more control over the job. 

The best example is safety with sharp knives over dull knives. The more force you need (Blunt knives) the more accidents tend to happen. 

5) mechanical hands will be the norm. the Spacer's hands are protected with a layer of controls. grip strength and exoskeletons make a laborer able to do most straightening out and labors without expending Delta-V reaction mass (which is so hard to get to space in the early years). 

I realized so many things in the exercise.